Excuses Are the Enemy of Results

I want to talk to you today about getting results. I turned 59 the other day, and I’m reaching an age where you do look back on things a little bit. As I look at the world today—I’m going to be completely honest with you—sometimes I’m afraid we’re losing our toughness, the ability to demand results. I believe there are two things in business, in sports or whatever it is: There’s results, and there’s bull. Most people spend all their time making excuses, talking about why they didn’t get it done. Winners get results.

There is a scoreboard in life. There is a thing called making it happen. I’ve been in business points in my career, in 2008, when the economy collapsed. My partner, Rick Williams, and I knew we had to get our business separated from Citigroup. We knew we had to make it happen. Not getting it done was not an option. We had to make it happen, and it was hard. We didn’t know what to do every day, but when a door would close we would find a window.

I used to play golf a lot. You hit the ball of the tee into the rough, and you can’t just go, “I meant it to be out there in the middle of the fairway.” You’ve got to play the ball where it lies and go get results. That requires toughness. It requires discipline, and it requires getting after it on a daily basis.

So that’s my challenge to you. Whatever challenge or problem or where you’re at in your career, go out, get tough and get results.